Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-11-04

You never speak Of that place but with a
smile. Some of you have pleasant memories
connected with the evening star, or the moon
in its first quarter, or with the sunrise, be-
cause you saw 1t just as you were arriving at
harbor after tempestuous voyage. Forever
and forever, o hearer, associate the sunset
with your magnanlmous, out and out, un-
limited remuneration of all hatreds and for
giveness of all foes. / admit it is the most
difficult of all graces to practice, and at the
start you may make complete failure, but
keep on in the attempt to practice it.
Shakespeare wrote ten plays before he
reached Hamlet" and seventeen plays
Eefore he reached Merchant of Venice, and
twenty-eight plays before he reach Mac
beth" And gradually you will come from
the easier graces to the most difficult. Be-
SIDE that, it IS not matter of personal deter.
mination 50 much as the laying hold CT the
almighty arm of Col, who will help us to do
anything we ought to do. Remember that
III all personal controversies the one
least to blame will have to take the
first step at pacifcation, if it is ever
effective. The contest between Eschines
and Aristippus rssounds through history, but
Aristippus, who was least to blame, went to
4Aschines and said: "Shall we not agree to
be friends before we make ourselves the
laughing stock of the whole country.n And
Eschines said; "Thou art far better man
than for began the quarrel, but thou hast
been the first in healing the breach, and they
were always friends afterwards. So let the
one of you that is least to blame take
the first step toward conciliation. The one
most in the wrong will never take it. Oh
It makes one, feel splendid to be, able
by Gods help to practice unlimited
forgiveness. 1t improves ones body and
soul 1t will make you measure three or four
more inches around the chest, and improve
your respiration so that you can take deep
er and longer breath 1t improves the coun-
tenance by scattering the gloom, and bright
ening the forehead, and loosening the pinched
look about the noStril and lip, and makes yon
somewhat like God Himself He is omnipo-
tence, and We cannot copy that. He is indie
pendent of all the universe, and we cannot
copy that. He is creative, and we cannot
copy that. He is omnipresent. and we cannot
copy that But He forgives with broad sweep
all faults, and all neglect, and all insults,
and all wrong doing, and in that we may copy
him with mighty success. Go harness that
sublime action Of your soul to an autumnal
sunset, the hour when the gate of heaven
opens to let the day pass into the eternities
and some of the glories escape this way
through the brief opening. We talk about
the Italian sunsets, and sunset amid the APP
pennies, and sunset amid the Cordilleras.
But will tell you how you may see grander
sunset than any mere lover of nature ever be-
held; that is by flinging into it all your
hatreds and animositieS, and let the horses of
fire trample them, and the chariots of fire
roll over them, and the spearmen of fire
stab them, and the breath of fire consume
them, aud the pillows of fire overwhelm
them. The sublimest thing God does is the
sunset. The Sublimest thing you can do is
forgiveness. Along the glowing banks of
this coming eventide let the divine and the
human be concurrent.
Again; We should not let the sun go down
on our wrath because eit is of little Importance
what the world says of you or does to you
when you have the affiuent God of the sunset
as your provider and defender People
talk as though it were a fixed spec
tacle of nature and always the same
But no one ever saw two sunsets alike
and if the world has existed 5000 years there
have been about 2,190,000 sunsets, each Of
them as distinct from all tine other pictures in
the gallery of the sky as Titian's Last Sup,
per" Rubens' Descent from the Cross
RaphaePs TRANSPORTATION" and Michael
Angeles Last Judgment are distinct
from each other. II that God, of such
infinite resouces that he can put on the wall
OF the sky each night more than the Louvre,
and the Luxembourg, and the Vatican, and
the Dresden and Venetian galleries all in one,
is my God and your God, our provider and
protector, what is the use Of our worry
ing about any human antagonism! If we are
misinterpreted, the God of the many colored
sunset can put the right color on our action
Ii he can afford to hang such masterpieces
over the outside wall Of heaven and have
them obllterated in an hour, he must be very
rich in resources and can put us through in
safety Ii all the garniture of the western
heavens at eventide is but the upholstery of
one of the windows of our future home, what
small business for us to be chasing enemies!
Let not this Sabbath sun 60 down upon your
wrath.
Mahomest said: "The sword is the kew of
Heaven and hell, drop of blood shed is bet
ter than fasting, and wounds in the day of
Judgment resp endent as vermilion and o1or-
ferrous as musk" But. my hearers, in the
last day we will find just the opposite of
that to be true, and that the sword never I'M
locks heaven, and that he who heals wounds
is greater than he who makes them, and that
on the same ring are two KEYS: Gods for
giveness Of us and our forgiveness of enemies:
and these two keys unlock Paradise.
And now l wish for all of you a beautiful
sunset in your earthly existence. With some
of you it has been long day of trouble, and
with others of you it will be far from calm.
When the sun rose at q o'clock it was the
morning of youth, and Il fair day was
prophesied, but by the time the monday OF
mid-life had come and the clock of your
earthly existence had struck 12, cloud racks
gathered and tempest beloved in the track
of tempest. But as the evening of old age
approaches Ipray God the skies may brighten
and the clouds be piled up into pillars as
of celestial temples to which you go, Oh
move as with mounted cohorts come to take
you home. And as you sink out of sight be
low the horizon may there be a radiance
of Christian example lingering long after
you are gone, and on the heavens be writ
ten in letters of sapphire, and on the waters
in letters of opal, and on the hills in letters o.
emerald: THY sun shall no more go down
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself. fol
~ Ip.l shlll be thy everlasting light and
ne drv5 ot thy mourning shall be ended -
o Shd / tue l.lsss Of eur5h become the sun
- o. h4lTAn.